How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

No doubt you’re familiar with the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re trying to present and explain complex data.

Using charts and graphs is useful for making data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present data, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex data with numbers, trends or relationships quickly, then graphs and charts let you present the information in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be easily processed.

Graphs and charts help you present complex information so people can more easily understand it!

Need to add charts and graphs to WordPress? This tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin that lets you create, manage and embed eye-catching and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in just a few mouse clicks that:

• Your web visitors can interact with
• Allows you to add data from your computer or an online source of data
• Will resize dynamically for mobile screens

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs containing static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use to add the data is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply insert your files and an image into your pages.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to create interactive bar charts and graphs in your WordPress pages and posts with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create eye-catching and mobile-responsive graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updatable data.

WP Plugin: Visualizer

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin the WordPress free plugin directory using the link below:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

Visualizer is an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and embed attractive and interactive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages in a few simple steps.

WordPress Visualizer uses Google Visualization API to render charts, which support cross-browser compatibility (adopting VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iOS and new Android releases, and are based on pure HTML5/SVG technology (adopting VML for old IE versions), so no additional plugins or add-ons are needed.

Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in that are optimized to address all your data visualization needs, including:

• Line chart
• Area chart
• Bar chart
• Column chart
• Pie chart
• Geo chart
• Gauge chart
• Candlestick chart
• Scatter chart

The plugin is also flexible and customizable, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your web design. A number of options are available for each chart that allow you to customize their look and feel.

Additionally, charts are rendered using HTML5/SVG technology to provide cross-browser compatibility (including VML for older IE versions) and cross platform portability to iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Your blog or site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile web browsers without requiring the installation of any extra software.

How To Install Visualizer

Inside your WP administration area, select Plugins > Add New from the main menu …

In the Add Plugins screen type “visualizer” into the search field and click enter …

Locate the item in the search results section and click Install Now …

Click OK to proceed …

Activate the plugin …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from your main menu …

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …

When you first install the plugin, this section will be empty.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your content.

Visualizer Plugin Configuration

To add a chart or graph to the Visualizer library, click on ‘Add New’ …

A gallery displaying all of the default kinds of charts and graphs available will come up on your screen.

Select the chart or graph type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …

The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.

The next step is to upload a CSV file containing all the data you want your chart or graph to be populated with …

When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:

• The first row includes your column headings.
• The second row contains the series type (e.g. boolean, datetime, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data as per the above requirements …

If you are unsure about how to format your CSV file, just download the sample spreadsheet supplied with the plugin.

Once you have created your CSV file, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload the CSV file from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …

Locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin will import the data and display it using the graph/chart type chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

For a tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, see the article below:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing your data, make sure that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file containing the correct data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin displays various customization options and settings …

Visualizer gives you complete control of your information, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, including:

• General Settings – Configure settings for the chart’s title, font styles, tooltip, and legend.
• Pie Settings – Create 3D pie charts, draw slices counterclockwise, set the text content displayed on the slice, create a “donut” pie chart, rotate the chart’s “start” angle and set the slice border color.
• Residue Settings – Set the ‘Visibility Threshold’ (the slice relative part, below which a slice will not show individually.), ‘Residual Slice Label’ (the label for the combination slice that holds all slices below slice visibility threshold, e.g. “Other”), and ‘Residue Slice Color’.
• Slice Settings – Customize the ‘Slice Offset’ (how far to separate a slice from the rest of the pie), and ‘Slice Color’.
• Layout & Chart Area – Configure the layout (total size of chart) including the width and height of the chart as a number of percentage, background color for the main area of the chart and the chart border width and color, and the placement and size of the chart area (where the chart itself is drawn, excluding axis and legends).

Once you’re satisfied with the way your chart or graph appears, click on the ‘Create Chart’ button …

Your graph or chart will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …

Note that every element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see in a moment, this lets you insert graphs and charts into your WordPress pages and posts quickly …

Graphs and charts added to the Visualizer Library can easily be accessed by type …

After adding an item to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …

Visualizer Usage

After creating a new chart or graph and adding it to the Visualizer Library, it’s really simple to add it to a page or post.

First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …

Next, place your mouse cursor where you want to insert your visual element into the content and click on Add Media …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Select the graph or chart to be inserted into your content and click the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

After you have finished adding your shortcode, click on Publish to publish (or update) your page or post …

After updating your page, click ‘View post’ to see the result …

Your page or post displays your graph in the location where you have added the shortcode …

As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive elements for mobile device screens …

As you can see, Visualizer allows you to insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your website. This makes working with dynamic chart data in WordPress really easy.

The developers of this plugin have created a number of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.

For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, refer to the website below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily insert beautiful bar charts and graphs into your WordPress pages and posts.

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